Thursday, October 04, 2012

Here are a number of items Grits founding interesting but hasn't had the time to write up:

Dueling events create quandary for Grits coverage
The Texas Forensic Science Commission has a full agenda
(pdf) tomorrow, including discussions of issues from crime labs at Austin PD, El Paso
PD, the Tarrant County medical examiner, and the DPS lab in Houston.
Concurrently, the Court of Criminal Appeals' Criminal Justice Integrity
Unit will meet
to hear "presentations from Texas State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy on
addressing
the recommendations of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, TEEX on
property room management, and Gary Udashen on Brady issues." Grits is
having a difficult time deciding which to attend: Let me know in the
comments which you'd rather see covered.

Near miss: Accused, but innocent
Dallas
has become uncomfortably familiar with stories of men falsely accused
of rape or murder who were exonerated decades later by DNA evidence. The
Dallas News has the story
of a successful architect who barely escaped the same fate, with
allegations hanging over his head for years before DNA solved a cold
case in which he'd been the primary suspect.

Secrecy about police misconduct and the Public Information Act
Reporters in Odessa are having trouble figuring out why one narcotics investigator was fired and two others were reassigned.

On the racial implications of prosecuting trace drug cases
At the Houston Chronicle, Lisa Falkenberg had a column discussing the implications of Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow. She wrote that "the Harris County district attorney candidate who returned my call, Republican Mike Anderson,
promised it's on his reading list. I have to wonder if it will change
his mind about wanting to dismantle DA Pat Lykos' policy against
prosecuting trace drug cases."

Houston mental health court targets felony offenses
A new felony mental health court has opened in Houston; see coverage from Brian Rogers at the Houston Chronicle. Many similar courts in other jurisdictions focus mainly on misdemeanor offenses.

State says 'no' to privatizing mental hospital
Despite being the only bidder, the GEO Group won't be operating the state's mental hospital in Kerrville, reported the Austin Statesman.

The Fourth Amendment and cell phone location data
At the Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr has a writeup of oral arguments at the 5th Circuit over whether law enforcement can access cell-phone location data without a warrant. The Obama Administration argued that the public has no privacy rights regarding historic location data held by their cell-phone service provider. Here's a link to the audio. Relatedly, here's a recent essay by an academic at Texas Southern University "on the proper role of U.S. magistrate judges in applying the constitution to electronic surveillance requests by law enforcement, particularly during an era of legislative inertia and appellate court reticence."

'The Other Death Sentence'
In an article on 'life' sentences with the same title as this subhed, writer James Ridgeway poses the question, "More than 100,000 Americans are destined to spend their final years in prison. Can we afford it?"

'Million dollar blocks'Via NPR, "By mapping the residential addresses of every inmate in various prison
systems, the center has made vividly clear a concept it calls 'million-dollar blocks' — areas where more than $1 million is being
spent annually to incarcerate the residents of a single census block." One benefit of this work, "One of the things we noticed right away when legislators and others
started to see this, is they talked about this issue differently.
Instead of getting stuck in the 'being soft, get tough [on crime]'
paradox, they started to talk about neighborhoods."

UK lab mixup resulted in false rape accusation
In Britain, a man was falsely accused of rape after a crime lab mixed up his DNA with a sample from a sexual assault case. "Despite warnings of DNA contamination at the laboratory less than two
week earlier, Adam Scott was arrested and held in custody – even though
he had been hundreds of miles from the scene of the crime."

Religious conservative backs pot legalization
How did I miss that televangelist Pat Robertson earlier this year came out in favor of legalizing marijuana? I wonder if that counter-intuitive endorsement has been played up in the tax-and-regulate campaigns going on in Colorado and Washington state?

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I have to wonder if it will change his mind about wanting to dismantle DA Pat Lykos' policy against prosecuting trace drug cases.

Of course it won't, because he will claim that race isn't a factor in his prosecutions. The only thing that will keep him from filling that jail up and sending prisoners to Louisiana again will be the threat of budget cuts from the commissioners. He is a Holmes/Rosenthal type prosecutor and judge who thinks he's on a mission from God. We do not need him here, and he will only be elected for the same reason Lykos was last term--a complete lack of options.

If they allow questions or he happens across this comment. I'd like to know his opinion of what can be done when ‘it's’ clearly documented (with black letters on white paper) via: the Certified Case file, Police Incident Report & Police Booking Photo that ‘it’ was blatantly withheld from the Defendant by everyone? (i.e., the Prosecution, four HPD Detectives (plus their supervisors) & the hired Defense.) Showing the Judge ignoring pre-trial discovery motions seeking ‘it’ & as ‘it’ clearly shows the Crime Victim being allowed to personally assist Detectives’ in the framing of the innocent?

Come to think about it, you might just be wasting your valuable time, as I wonder if his opinion would matter about anything or have any real impact on ‘it’ being withheld?

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"

- Rob Patterson, The Austin Post"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas."

- Texas Public Policy Foundation

"Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right"

David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"

"I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."

Kim Vickers,Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationGrits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."

Maurice Chammah,The Marshall Project"unrestrained and uneducated"

John Bradley,Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau

"our favorite blog"

- Texas District and County Attorneys Association Twitter feed"Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas."